The Fellowship of the Ring (film)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) is a film, released on Wednesday, December 19, 2001, directed by Peter Jackson, with a runtime of 178 minutes (2 hours 58 minutes). It is the first part of the Lord of the Rings trilogy of films. The film tells the adventures of the members of the "Fellowship of the Ring" that are contained in The Fellowship of the Ring, the first part of J. R. R. Tolkien's epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings. The final scene is actually taken from the first chapter of the second volume, The Two Towers. The screenplay was written by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson. It was produced as the first of three films based on the novel, filmed simultaneously on location in New Zealand, with a budget of U.S. $180 million and principal photography taking 14 months and postproduction continuing long after that. Symbolism There is great amounts of symbolism in Peter Jackson's rendition of the trilogy. In particular, there was a scene during Bilbo's Birthday Party that shows this. Before the party was entirely ready, Bilbo and Gandalf stood on the edge of a path next to Bag End gazing at the party tree and the cheers of the hobbits. Both are smoking pipes, so Bilbo puffs out a rather circular shape of smoke. When Gandalf released the smoke, he designs a ship that sails through the circle Bilbo created. While controversial, this event is to some a foretelling of the end of the third movie when Frodo and the other Ring-Bearers go on Cirdan's ship and depart from the Grey heaven's to the Undying Lands. The ship being the ship Frodo boards, and the circle being the sea, or possibly the sun. This is only something to consider, however, though still a fine example of Peter Jackon's artistic directing. Cast Synopsis Sauron, the dark lord, has awakened and threatens to conquer Middle-earth. To stop this ancient evil once and for all, Frodo Baggins must destroy the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom. Men, Hobbits, a Wizard, an Elf and a Dwarf form a fellowship to help him on his quest. He travels from his home in the Shire with Sam, Merry and Pippin to Bree where they meet Aragorn. Pursued by Black Riders, they must get to Rivendell where they decide to take the ring to Mordor, and where they are joined by Gandalf, Gimli, Legolas, and Boromir. They try to cross the mountains but are defeated because of Saruman's magic and travel underneath, through the mines of Moria, where Gandalf falls into a chasm while fighting a Balrog. They then travel to the country of the elves in Lothlórien, and down the Great River on boats, where the company splits during an attack by Uruk-Hai. Boromir is killed, and Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas split off to track the Uruk-Hai who have captured Merry and Pippin. Frodo and Sam head east in the direction of Mordor. Memorable Quotes Special effects The Fellowship of the Ring makes extensive use of digital, practical and makeup special effects throughout. One noticeable effect that appears in almost every scene involves setting a proper scale so that the characters are all the proper height. Elijah Wood, who plays Frodo, is 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) tall in real life; but the character of Frodo Baggins is barely four feet tall. Many different tricks were used to cast the hobbits (and Gimli the Dwarf) as diminutive. Large and small stunt doubles were used in certain scenes, while entire duplicates of certain sets (especially Bag End in Hobbiton) were built at two different scales, so that the characters would appear to be the appropriate size. At one point in the film Frodo runs along a corridor in Bag End, followed by Gandalf. Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen were filmed in separate versions of the same corridor, built at two different scales, and a fast camera pan conceals the edit between the two. Forced perspective was also employed, so that it would look as though the short hobbits were interacting with taller Men and Elves. Surprising the makers of the film, kneeling was used to great effect. For the battle between the Last Alliance and the forces of Sauron that begins the film, an elaborate CGI animation system, called Massive, was developed that would allow thousands of individual animated "characters" in the program to act independently. This helped give the illusion of realism to the battle sequences. Filming locations A list of filming locations, sorted by appearance order in the movie: Deviations from the source material A small but vocal minority of admirers of the original book raised some concerns when the film was released, complaining that the movie's screenplay made a number of changes to Tolkien's story. Many of these protests seemed to be rather minor concerns and were largely ignored by general movie going audiences. However, more than a few people expressed surprise when the movie's plot diverged from that of the book in what might be considered more fundamental ways. * Bilbo's birthday party was actually a combined birthday party for himself and Frodo (who was 33) since they share the same birthday. The (controversial) number of guests invited to the party (144) was determined by adding their ages together. * The Hobbits' adventures on the way from the Shire to Bree, which occupy over five chapters of the novel, were drastically cut, implying that the journey took place over a much shorter period of time. This material includes the Hobbits' interaction with Tom Bombadil, who is completely absent from the film. The time the Hobbits spend in Bree itself is also significantly shortened, and their acquisition of the pony, Bill, is missing. Also missing is an entire subplot in which Frodo pretends to be moving back to his ancestral home in Buckland, with the help of his Hobbit friends (who, in the book, turn out to be Sam's co-conspirators and are introduced quite differently). * Old Man Willow was transplanted to Fangorn Forest (in the extended version of The Two Towers). * Arwen Evenstar has a far greater role; and her replacement of the character of Glorfindel from the novel raised the ire of many dedicated Tolkien fans. * In the film, Sam Gamgee is treated as an adult at Bilbo Baggins' farewell party; in the books, he was only 21 (still 12 years from his coming of age). Perhaps more significantly, Frodo appears much younger. The seventeen year time period between the party and Gandalf's return to the Shire is significantly shortened. This tightening of the timespan occurs frequently. * The characterization of Boromir is expanded somewhat, and his final stand at Amon Hen is included on-screen (an event which takes place in the next volume of the books). This change has been received fairly positively. Other fans explain that, compared to the many film adaptations of literary works over the years, many of which bear little or no resemblance to the source material, this film and the remainder of the trilogy are still very faithful adaptations, with some changes necessary due to the differing limitations of film. Linguistic elements Some fans also felt that movie producers missed the linguistic basis of the work (as Tolkien invented the world to bring his languages alive and not the other way around): In particular, Namárië, Galadriel's lament in Lórien that begins "Ai! laurië lantar lassi súrinen", did not appear in the film, although Tolkien considered it one of the highest points of The Fellowship of the Ring. A few lines of the poem do, however, make it into the soundtrack at the departure from Lórien. Other samples of Elvish language from the books are treated similiarly. However, Elvish (most often Sindarin) is spoken extensively in the film, with and without subtitles. The Elvish lines were, for the most part, devised specifically for the film version, sometimes based on English text written by Tolkien. The movie features numerous books and artifacts with Tengwar inscriptions. Even though they were researched for accuracy, they still show a couple of peculiarities and inconsistencies not found in Tolkien's own Tengwar samples. Another idiosyncrasy of the films is that Hobbit writing is shown in the Latin alphabet, while the books state that the Hobbits used the Tengwar. However, the Latin calligraphy is written in such a way that it bears resemblance to the Tengwar, including tehtar above their corresponding vowels. This refers visually to the Tengwar while allowing the audience to immediately recognise the text. Time Allotment One can perform a comparative analysis of the film and the book by comparing scenes to chapters and comparing time to pages. Those chapters that have low pages per minute values are chapters that have been given focus in the movie and the corollary is true. Score Awards In 2002 the movie won four Academy Awards out of thirteen nominations. The winning categories were for *Best Cinematography, *Best Effects, Visual Effects, *Best Makeup, and *Best Music, Original Score. The other nominated categories were: *Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Ian McKellen), *Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, *Best Costume Design, *Best Director, *Best Editing, *Best Music, Song (wikipedia:Enya, wikipedia:Nicky Ryan and wikipedia:Roma Ryan for "May It Be"), *Best Picture, *Best Sound, and *Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published. After the close of its theatre run, it ranked in the top ten highest grossing movies worldwide, with takings of $860,700,000 USA dollars from world-wide theatrical box office receipts (movie ticket sales). (Source: IMDB Top Movies Chart). The movie has also been released on videotape and DVD, with some editions having additional footage and commentary not included in the theatrical release edition. Notable among the restored scenes is additional footage of a smiling Galadriel bestowing gifts on the members of the fellowship. In the theatrical version, she appeared dark and brooding. On Tuesday, November 12, 2002, Special Extended DVD Edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was released, containing 208 minutes (3 hours, 28 minutes) of footage. The extended editions of The Fellowship of the Ring and the second movie, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers had limited theatrical runs in selected cities worldwide in late 2003, during the run-up to the release of the final film, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Followed by: *''The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers'' Released 2002 *''The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King'' Released 2003 Previous version: *''The Lord of the Rings, a 1978 animated film by Ralph Bakshi. See also *The Fellowship of the Ring'' - Book by J. R. R. Tolkien *Fellowship of the Ring - For more information on the fellowship. *Easter Eggs in the Lord of the Rings movies Lord of the Rings:The Fellowship of the Ring Lord of the Rings:The Fellowship of the Ring Fellowship of the Ring Lord of the Rings:The Fellowship of the Ring Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring Lord the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring